《Hellish Ascendance》 Chapter 1: Birth of an Imp Hunger.That was the first feeling I felt when I came too.Thirst soon followed. [TitleOne Who Fell To Darknesshas been acquired.] What. I looked around but only the source of the voice could not be seen. Instead in front of me was some sort of screen displaying what the voice has just said.The landscape around me was filled with fire. Even the sky looked like it was burning. Yet I didn¡¯t feel any discomfort. [Due to TitleOne Who Fell To Darknessthe skillDark Knowledge: Lv1has been acquired.] As the voice spoke what the screen displayed changed to match what the voice said. I tried standing up but found myself unable to move. In fact on closer inspection I lacked anything close to what legs are supposed to look like. Instead my lower body looked like that of some kind of larva. What was this form? I didn¡¯t seem to have either arms or legs. [Do you wish to use skillDark Knowledgeto inspect yourself?] The voice rang out once more. ¡°Yes¡±. Since I didn¡¯t know what I was I did as the voice suggested.
Race: Hellish Larva Level: 1/1 HP: 1/1 Mana: 0/0 Vitality: 1/1 Agility: 1/1 Strength: 1/1 Intelligence: 10 Unique Skills: Skills: Dark Knowledge Lv1 (New) Fire Resistance: Lv5 Unique Titles: One Who Fell To Darkness (New) Titles:
So I¡¯m an Hellish Larva huh. Not that I know what that is. [Do you wish to use skill Dark Knowledge to inspect Hellish Larva?] So Dark Knowledge can do that to. Seems like a useful ability. ¡°Yes¡± [Hellish Larva. A Hellish Larva houses the unborn body of an Lesser Imp. If destroyed before the Lesser Imp is born the Lesser Imp will die within 1 minute unless transferred to another Hellish Larva.] Wait I can¡¯t be an Imp. I¡¯m a Human. Sure while I have no memory of being one I know instinctively that I am one. However despite how much I complained the voice didn¡¯t answer me. What felt like several months passed without change. On multiple occasions I tried moving the strange form I was inhabiting but I failed every time. As more timed passed I noticed other Hellish Larva around me. I spent a lot of time observing them. Their body was white without any legs or arms. Instead it was divided into multiple small fragments like what you would expect to see on a larva. They seemed to have some resemblance of a face however I was unable to see much more as my position prevented me from seeing them from the front. As more timed passed I felt my body getting hotter. Even so it didn¡¯t feel bad instead the feeling felt good. However the feeling of hunger and thirst still plagued me. The feelings that had been with me since I was first born into this world had never ceased. In fact they had gotten stronger as more time passed. By human standards I should already have been dead. Yet this strange body of mine persevered. [Requirements for evolution have been fulfilled. Do you wish to evolve into Lesser Imp?] For the first time in what felt like forever the voice echoed in my head. So It was finally time for me to be born huh. While I had complained for a long time I wasn¡¯t as against being born as I had thought I would be. Maybe I just wanted to move around since I had been stuck in here for forever. As I was thinking the larva around me started convulsing as their back split open and small red figures emerged from the opening in the larva.Deciding to not waste anymore time I answered the voice inside my head.¡°Yes. I wish to evolve.¡± As I finished the sentence unfathomable amounts of pain shot through my back as I felt it split open. Yet as it did my body changed. Suddenly I had both legs and arms. And I could finally move. As I surveyed the area around me I saw hundreds of the small red creatures. They were engaged in multiple small fights as they fought against each other. Suddenly the smell of blood hit me and my stomach reacted strongly. How could blood smell so delicious? Driven by the smell of blood I approached one of the smaller groups. Three of the small red figures where engaged in a stalemate each waiting for the others to make a move. All of them had major wounds however they didn¡¯t seem to pay any attention to them. Sneaking up on one of the unsuspecting creatures without as much as a thought I bit into its neck. As it screamed out in pain blood flowed down my throat and the feelings of hunger and thirst started to slowly disappear. Even as the creature collapsed on the ground I continued biting into its neck and drinking its blood.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. [Gained 3 Attribute Points from killing Lesser Imp. Skill Stealth: Lv1 has been acquired.] The voice from before echoed inside my head once again. Being brought back to my senses I looked down on the creature I had just killed. For the first time in my life I had killed something. I had killed another living being, something that was probably even on of my kin. Still I didn¡¯t feel regret or shame. Instead I was overwhelmed with the feeling of pleasure and fear. How could killing something feel that good. While I was busy contemplating the other two creatures had attacked each other and after what must have been a fierce struggle one of them had come out on top. The creature was busy with devouring its opponents corpse. While my heart and brain here against it my instincts urged me to attack the unsuspecting Imp. But a growl of my stomach quickly finished the fight between my Human part and Imp part before it even started. As if in a haze I sneaked up on the Imp and bit down on its neck. The already heavily injured Imp collapsed and I quickly finished my meal. [Gained 3 Attribute Points from killing Lesser Imp. Title Ambusher: Lv1 has been acquired.] The voice inside my head spoke once again. As I had killed my kin my attributes had increased. I vaguely remembered them all being at 1 before I evolved so I suppose they increase as I eat. ¡°Inspect¡± I said as I looked at myself. Yet out of my mouth came a growl instead of words. Still the voice in my head did as I wished and my information appeared one more.
Race: Lesser Imp Level: 1/15 HP: 10/10 Mana: 0/0 Vitality: 10 + Agility: 10 + Strength: 10 + Intelligence: 10 + Unspent Attribute Points: 6 Unique Skills: Skills: Dark Knowledge: Lv1 Stealth: Lv1 (New) Fire Resistance: Lv5 Unique Titles: One Who Fell To Darkness Titles: Ambusher Lv1 (New)
So my physical attributes had increased yet my Intelligence remained at 10. Though it had been at 10 before I was born as well so perhaps its condition for rising is different. Seeing as the other Imps were approaching me with hungry eyes I decided to inspect my status in further detail later. Not wanting to get devoured I quickly ran away from the remnants of the larva into the wasteland. Some Imps followed me however due to my headstart I managed to escape. After escaping from the Imps I slowed down. With no knowledge of where I was it would be smarter to survey the area instead of running around mindlessly. Up ahead i spotted what looked like a hill so to gain an understanding of the surrounding area I decided to head there. Upon arriving at the top of the hill I surveyed the area around me. I saw countless Lesser Imps running around. Some traveled in groups while others traveled alone. There were also other creatures, among them there were dogs with fur made of fire and horses with burning manes. ¡°Inspect¡± I said as I observed the creatures. [Small Hellhound: A newborn Hellhound Small Hellhounds have a vicious appetite which consist mainly of Lesser Imps and Hellish Larva. As they grow older they will form packs to increase their hunting area.] [Young Harbinger: The infant form of Harbingers. They are the fastest creatures on the first layer of Avernus. They are strong enough to hunt packs of Lesser Imps and Small Hellhounds alone. When they evolve into their adult form they will form groups to avoid being targeted by stronger devils.] So I was on the first layer of Avernus. Avernus is the first circle of hell but I didn¡¯t know that it also had layers. ¡°Inspect first layer of Avernus¡±. [The first layer of Avernus contain newborn devils of different kinds. Amongst the common ones are Lesser Imps, Small Hellhounds and Lesser Infernals.] So I belong to one of the common creatures of this layer. That probably means i¡¯m weak. Well I¡¯ll just have to do my best to survive with the skills I have. I guess I¡¯ll take a detailed look on them. ¡°Inspect Stealth¡± [Stealth: When sneaking it¡¯s harder to detect you. The higher level of the skill the harder it is to detect you. This skill is countered by Sense Creature of equal or higher level.] ¡°Inspect Fire Resistance¡± [Fire Resistance: Reduces the amount of damage taken from fire based attacks. Also reduces the damage taken from environmental fire based effects.] ¡°Inspect Dark Knowledge¡± [Dark Knowledge: At lower levels this skill allows the user to identify different devils and show their detailed status. At higher levels it allows the user to identify higher tier devils as well as research dark lore. When used by devils it also functions as the humans inspect skill.] ¡°Inspect Ambusher¡± [Ambusher: Increases the damage dealt when ambushing. The increase depends on the level of the title.] [Skill Dark Knowledge has increased to Lv2.] It seems like Dark Knowledge increases in levels as I use it. That''s good to know. ¡°Inspect One Who Fell To Darkness¡± [Dark Knowledge is not powerful enough to inspect One Who Fell To Darkness.] So if I raise Dark Knowledge I''ll be able to inspect it. It took some time to raise it to Lv2 so it will probably take some time before I''m able to inspect it. Well now that I know what my skills and titles do I should spend my attribute points. My stealthy nature is what allowed me to survive this far so I should probably increase my agility quite a bit. And my human intelligence is also giving my advantage against my kin. I mean for fucks sake once they start feeding they dont notice their surroundings at all. But increasing my vitality and strength might also be useful. In the end I increased my Agility and Intelligence by 2 and my Vitality and Strength by 1.As I finished distributing the attribute points my stomach grumbled. Seems like it¡¯s time to go out and hunt. I spotted a lone Imp and headed towards it. Chapter 2: The First Hunt It took me some time to reach the lone Imp and when I reached it I found it engaged in a battle with one of the Hellhounds. The Imp was desperately trying to defend itself as the Hellhound slowly wore it down by harassing it. I stayed for some time observing the fight before the Imp finally collapsed. While the Hellhound was feeding I slowly approached it from behind using my ambush strategy. To my surprise however as I got closer the Hellhound noticed me and growled at me. It seems like my ambush strategy wont work on the Hellhounds. Even while it was distracted it noticed me. I jumped back to gain some distance from it while I tried to come up with a plan. The Hellhound wasn''t injured in its fight with the Imp so it''ll probably be stronger than me. I''ll need to use my brain to my advantage. However the Hellhound wasn''t going to give me time to think. With its fangs bared it lunged at me. With not much time to react I dodged to the side but not without sustaining an injury. Before I got out of the way my left leg was bitten. While it wasn''t bleeding it hurt like hell. As I was studying the wound the Hellhound lunged again however with the element of surprise gone I barely managed to dodge it. I continued narrowly dodging for a while until i figured out how to beat it. Thankfully it didn''t seem very intelligent so it only ever lunged at me. It might work against other Imps but not against me. As it lunged once more i narrowly avoided it but as it passed me I sliced into its side with my claws. While the wound wasn''t big enough to cause any serious damage it still hurt it and the Hellhound whined in pain. Now with both of us injured the fight turned into a stalemate. We circled each other for a while. I didn''t feel brave enough to approach it but neither did it. So while we were both bleeding out we continued the stalemate. Unfortunately I got injured first so it looked like I was going to lose. Getting desperate I fainted an attack against its injured side while sidestepping to get on its other side. Thankfully the Hellhound didn''t see through my plan and I got in a hit on its right side. With the battle now in my favour I distanced myself and waited for it to bleed out. [Gained Exp from Small Hellhound. Level has increased to 2. Gained 10 Attribute Points from reaching Level 2. Gained 5 Attribute Points from killing Small Hellhound.] As I killed the Hellhound suddenly all my wounds healed. And my level increased as well. But I was really surprised. When it comes to attribute points Imps are garbage compared to Hellhounds. Not only did I level up I got 5 attribute points from killing the Hellhound. Though I discovered soon that their blood pales in comparison to Imp blood. While I was thinking of eating the bodies the blood seemed to have sated my hunger so I won''t give up my last bit of humanity just yet. I further increased my Intelligence and Agility by 6 each and put the rest points into Vitality. If I want to be able to stand up against the Hellhounds I will have to be able to survive longer incase I get injured. Still the injuries heal when I level up so as long as I don''t die I should be fine. But I barely managed to avoid the Hellhound after figuring out its attack pattern. It''s no wonder Imps have trouble dealing with them. They are faster than the Imps and their fangs and claws are stronger than ours. I doubt I would have survived if I hadn''t had human level intelligence. After all being able to predict its attacks was what saved me. But Imps started flocking around the corpses so it''s time for me to take my leave. As I left a bloody brawl started over the corpses but I paid it no mind. While I intended to survive this wasteland unnecessary fighting would only leave me weakened incase more Imps started gathering around the corpses I left behind. And a weak Imp is a dead one. But still maybe I should kill some Imps since it helps me get stronger. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. As I was contemplating I returned to the hill I found earlier and looked around. I spotted a few Hellhounds in the distance but they where to far away for me to get them. There where also a lot of Imps around probably drawn here by the smell of blood. It wouldn''t be hard to lay in ambush for them as I knew the terrain around here thanks to my elevated position. The only danger would be the corpses left after I killed the Imps but unless too many gathered I should be fine. I found a nice spot in the are close to the pile of corpses and then waited behind a rock. While I agree it isn''t the greatest ambush created by Impkind it''ll do since the Lesser Imps aren''t very intelligent. And lo and behold soon an Imp entered my vision. Without him noticing I sneaked up behind him and using my claws cut his throat. It was a quick death, or at least it was supposed to be. But the Imp was sturdier than I had expected and survived my sneak attack. Still he was bleeding heavily. [Skill Stealth has reached Lv2] Not know. As the voice rang out the Imp pounced on me and thanks to me being temporarily distracted managed to pin me to the ground below him. Panicked I tried to bite at him and push him of me but he was stronger than me. Much stronger. Still he got weaker by the second as blood poured out of the wound I gave him. The other Imp bit into my shoulder and I could feel my blood being drained. Still the wound was still bleeding so the Imp should collapse any minute. Then to my surprise the wound started to slowly close. Before long the Imps wound was closed and I could feel myself growing weaker. My only hope left was that somehow Inspect would give me some kind of way to defeat the Imp. "Inspect"
Race: Lesser Imp Level: 1/15 HP: 6/18
[Lesser Imp: The most common race in the first layer of Avernus. As they are large in numbers they are a food source for every other creature on the same floor. However in turn those who survive this harsh environment are stronger than any of the first layers inhabitants. They are also able to easily adopt to the need of the individual which means that the evolution options of an Imp will change greatly depending on the individual.] Great information and all but not what I was looking for. I need to figure out how to survive this. As I was thinking I felt myself getting weaker and weaker. If I was ever going to do something it would have to be soon. But I wasn''t strong enough to push it of me. My only advantage was my intelligence. Then an idea popped into my head. I closed my eyes and stopped resisting as I let my head fall to the ground with a thud. Please believe I''m dead please. Noticing that its prey was "dead" the Imp let go of its grip and started slashing into my body as it started carving out pieces of my flesh. But before it got anywhere I jumped up bit into its neck. The already injured Imp fell down on me as its blood dripped into my mouth. [Gained 3 Attribute Points from killing Lesser Imp] As the voice rang out darkness embraced me. As I awoke darkness surrounded me. The only thing I could see was a floating ball of light. As I approached it it kept floating farther away from me. "Inspect" [Dark Knowledge can''t identify Ball of Light.] Since Dark Knowledge didn''t help I had no other choice I started chasing the ball of light around. I don''t know how long I was chasing it but at some point I noticed that the a red liquid was dripping from the ceiling. As I looked up a drop fell into my mouth and I felt the taste of blood on my tongue. At that moment the darkness disappeared along with the ball of light and I was met with the sight of a dead Imp onto of me. My wounds mostly healed. I didn''t know how long I had been out but atleast I hadn''t been attacked while unconscious. I removed the Imp and stood up making a note to myself to never underestimate an Imp again. Chapter 3: Close Encounter My ambush strategy turned out to be not only a complete failure I also almost died thanks to my stupidity. Because I underestimated the Imp I almost payed for it with my life. To be honest i still don¡¯t quite know how I survived. I was bleeding when I fell unconscious and since I didn¡¯t receive and exp I shouldn¡¯t have leveled up. So how did I survive. Did someone heal me. No that wouldn¡¯t make any sense since the only things that lived here see Lesser Imps as food. Next time I can¡¯t let myself be distracted or I¡¯ll suffer the same fate once again, perhaps not being able to survive the next time. Since I lacked strength if I¡¯m caught I¡¯ll die so my focus should be on avoiding attacks. After coming to that conclusion I spent two of my attribute points to increase Agility and then put the remaining one into Intelligence. [Agility has been increased to 20. Due to Agility 20 you may gain one of three following skills: Evasion: Lv1 Throwing: Lv1 Reflex: Lv1.] A message appeared on the screen to my surprise. It seems whenever you reach 20 in an attribute you can choose a skill derived from it. Question is what should i choose. While Throwing could be useful it requires something to thrown and I just realized how important dodging was for me. So the choice would be between Evasion and Reflex. Since my fighting style relies mostly on predicting my opponents moves faster reflexes could be useful but if I¡¯m not fast enough to dodge it even if I see it coming I won¡¯t be able to dodge it. So with that I choose evasion. [Skill Evasion: Lv1 has been acquired.] With my new skill I decided to set up another ambush. However this time it took some time before the first Imp entered my trap. Sneaking up behind it like before I once again sliced at its throat with my claws only to jump back as I finished my attack. But my retreat ended up being unnecessary as the Imp collapsed on the ground without any resistance. [Gained 2 Attribute Points from killing Lesser Imp.] I consumed the blood of my opponent before returning back to my hiding spot. I the amounts of attribute points i received had decreased for some reason but what shocked me more was that this Imp had died without a fight but the one from before has survived and even had enough strength to fight back. Maybe it¡¯s because what Dark Knowledge uncovered when I inspected the Imp from before. That Imps are versatile and can have different strength and weaknesses depending on their environment. Or maybe the other Imp had simply killed more opponents than this once and was therefore stronger. Not that it mattered much now anyway. I¡¯ve already created a strategy for dealing with any Imps that survive. Using the two attribute points i received I increased my Intelligence to 21 in the hopes of receiving a new skill. [Intelligence has been increased to 20. Due to Intelligence 20 you have gained access to your mana pool. Please also choose one type of magic from the following three: Fire Magic: Lv1 Dark Magic: Lv1 Blood Magic: Lv1.] As the message appeared I felt a strange warmth spread through my body. But I had a few new choices in front of me now. Magic would greatly increase my combat capabilities so I should choose carefully. Since I didn¡¯t know what either of them did I decided to inspect them. ¡°Inspect Fire Magic¡± [Fire Magic: Fire Magic is one of the Elemental Magics. It¡¯s focused on large scale destruction instead of accuracy and is the magic with most spells due to its popularity amongst humans. However as a downside many devils and demons are either immune or resistant to it and it is heavily countered my water magic of the same level.] Well fire magic is a no go. I won¡¯t be able to use it until I left hell and for all I know that won¡¯t happen anytime soon. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Inspect Darkness Magic¡± [Dark Magic: Dark Magic is one of the two Godly Magics. Used mostly be devils and demons and other servants of evil gods. The most famous Dark Magic user was the dark mage Nixar who terrorized the human world until the first hero killed him. It¡¯s an immensely powerful magic and its only equal is Light Magic.] Sounds tempting. But let¡¯s have a look at blood magic before making a decision. ¡°Inspect Blood Magic¡± [Blood Magic: One of the Forbidden Magics combining Light Magic and Dark Magic to temporarily either enhance the users body or control blood and shape it to the users will. However instead of mana Blood Magic uses blood as a source.] Well after having inspected all of them I guess I¡¯ll choose Dark Magic since I don¡¯t have much blood to sacrifice anyway and Fire Magic will be useless. And it was supposed to be really powerful. [Skill Dark Magic: Lv1 has been acquired. Spell Dark Bolt has been learnt.] As I acquired the skill the information on how to use it flowed into my mind. With my newly acquired mana I could chanel it into a object which conducted magic and then depending on what spell I was using the mana would take on the form of the spell. Thankfully it seems devils are naturally a good conductor so I didn¡¯t need to worry about that. All that was left was to practise it on something. Since I now had some ranged abilities I could keep a safe distance from my enemies so I decided to take a risk and try to find a Young Harbinger. I finally spotted one in the distance after searching for god knows how long. While searching I had encountered at least 7 Imps which I killed using Dark Bolt. It¡¯s effect where decent on the Imps most of them died in one hit and the ones who didn¡¯t were crippled so they where easy to finish off. Though the amount of attribute points i received had decreased once more. Maybe they decrease when you reach 20 in an attribute or maybe there is some other reason which I don¡¯t know of. After distributing the seven attribute points my stat block was very different from before.
Race: Lesser Imp Level: 2/15 HP: 28/28 Mana: 17/26 Vitality: 16 Agility: 22 Strength: 14 Intelligence: 21 Unique Skills: Skills: Dark Knowledge: Lv1 Stealth: Lv2 (Up) Fire Resistance: Lv5 Dark Magic: Lv1 (New) Dark Bolt: Lv2 (New) Unique Titles: One Who Fell To Darkness Titles: Ambusher Lv1
A slowly moved towards the Harbinger as I readied myself for the upcoming fight. This would be my first time fighting against one and unlike Lesser Imps Young Harbingers are rare so they are most likely stronger than the average Imp. Since it resembles a horse it¡¯s probably fairly fast as well. I should try to keep myself far away from it and attack it with my magic. I just hope I¡¯ll have enough mana to kill it. When I came within range of it I took a few deep breaths before firing of my first Dark Bolt. The Harbinger was taken by surprise as the Dark Bolt hit into its side. As it was hit it shrieked and turned towards me. However my second bolt was already on it¡¯s way and it too dealt some damage to it. Or at least i think it did as the Harbinger didn¡¯t seem to mind the attacks and started rushing towards me. As I retreated I kept on firing of Dark Bolts toward the Harbinger. While it managed to dodge one of the bolts the rest hit into it. However the Harbinger simply shrugged it of and continued charging towards me. I slowly started to panic. Maybe I was to confident in my new abilities after seeing them work well on the Imps. In comparison the Harbinger has barely reacted to my bolts at all. As i kept on runing away and firing at it my mana ran out and i was left with my claws and fangs as my only weapon. The situation truly wasn''t looking good. The Harbinger was faster than me so it kept on getting closer and closer. Up ahead i saw an outcropping of rocks. If i could reach it I should be able to hide from the Harbinger. Just as I was about to reach the outcroping I felt something hit into my back and send me flying forwards. I hit into one of the larger rocks and slowly stood of swaying lightly from the impact. Thankfully the rock I hit into wasn''t very sharp so I avoided any major injuries. And the Harbingers kick had sent me closer to my goal so all wasn''t bad. With the last of my strenght I managed to stumble into a small crack that just barely fit my whole body. When I finally was safe darkness swallowed me and I fell into a deep sleep. Chapter 4: Strange Visions Once more I awoke in the dark landscape. Around me the ball of light hovered in the air without moving. My body felt strange, the familiar feeling of my claws and fangs where gone. I looked down on my body and instead of the now familiar red skin was pink skin. Human skin. Surprised I inspected my body. It felt wierd. I knew I had once been human, but i felt strangely more familiar in my fiendish body now. The absence of claws disturbed me. After having claws I wondered how humans ever defended themselves without weapons. When I looked back at my body I saw that my skin had started to change and after a few moments the body that had previously belonged to a human was now my fiendish body. With the changes to my body over I started approaching the ball of light. However as I tried to get closer the ball slowly drifted away from me. Even as I ran the ball still avoided me. Truly I must have looked pathetic running after the ball for god knows how long. Still I realized after some time that it was useless. As long as the ball of light avoided me I would be unable to get close to it. But I didn''t feel like giving up. I tried to stealthly approach it. I failed. I tried luring it into a trap. That also failed. I had been defeated by a ball of light. Not even my intelligence was enough to catch it. My only option was to wait for it to approach me. I waited for what felt like years. I spent my time in eternal darkness as I waited for the ball to approach me. Then it happened. Out of the ball of light a smaller ball formed and slwoly headed towards me. As I reached out to touch it my mind blanked as light enveloped me. As the light faded the world around me changed. I looked out on a forest where a young man trained with a wooden sword. Not that you could call it training it felt more like aimless swinging to me. It was unrefined andamateurish. Still there was a passion in the boys face as he swung the sword again and again. After some time he stopped and went away but I knew I couldn''t follow. How I knew it I didn''t know but once I realized I tried moving and found myslef unable to move. However just as the boy left he appeared again and started training. This continued for years as I watched the boy grow up and his swordmanship becoming more graceful and refined instead of the brutish attempt it had been in the begining. From a young boy to a grown man I had watched him grow up and become a man. I felt strange looking at him. Had I once been the same? Filled with a desire to become a swordsman. I didn''t think so. While the young mans swordsmanship truly was refined and graceful it didn''t appeal to me. As I finished the thought light once more enveloped me and the vision before me vanished. I woke up and found myself where I had lostconsciousness and looked around. The Harbinger was long gone but the damage it had dealt still remained to a degree. My back hurt and it felt like my right arm was broken. Still it would heal eventually as my injuries had a tendancy to do. Still I healed better after killing some Imps so I decided to go out and hunt some. As I left my hiding spot I looked around for the Harbinger but found it nowhere in sight so I left before it could return. It did however take me some time before I saw my first Imp. It was heavily injured and if not for the Harbinger hunting it I would have attacked it. Still I had learned that one does not simply attack a Harbinger so I decided to get as far away as I could leaving the Imp to its fate. But lady luck smiled upon me as I soon found another Imp wandering in the distance. It was larger than any Imp I had seen before but I had a feeling I could easily take it. After firing 3 Dark Bolts it turned out I was right and the Imp collapsed dead on the ground. Still it had taken me three hits to kill it while normally one was enough to incapacitate an Imp. However killing it still only gained me one attribute point which I saved but my broken arm started healing at an outrageous pace and soon it was completely healed. The pain in my back had also disappeared.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. With my immediate problems dealt with I had to figure out a way to get stronger if I wanted to kill a Harbinger. My bolt did basically nothing to it and one hit was enough to send my flying. Yet Imps no longer gained me enough attribute points to be worth hunting them unless I needed to heal. The only other living creatures left around here was the Hellhounds but I didn''t know if I could take them. Sure I had killed one before and I had magic now but some of them had starting grouping up and I didn''t feel confident in taking on a group of them. My only remaining alternative would be to leave the area and search for something new but that felt even more dangerous than trying to hunt Hellhounds as I would have no idea what to expect. My only alternative was to hope I could find an alone Hellhound or at least a small group that was wounded. I would like to think the hunt went well. I had killed 12 Imps while searching for an Hellhound until I finally found one. But just as I was about to attack it a creature flew down from nowhere and grabbed the Hellhound only to moments later shredd the Hellhound with its claws. My mind was sending me danger signals as I watched the creature. It looked like a vulture only bigger and with wings made of fire and talons made of steel. Its beak contained multiple sharp teeth as it ripped the corpse to shreds as it was feeding. "Inspect" I muttered as i watched the creature eating. I wanted to know what this was as i had never seen it before.
Race: Demonic Firebird Level: 34/50 HP: 642/763
[Demonic Firebird:ADemonic Firebird is the pinnacle of existence on the lower levels of avernus and preys on any creature native to the plane. Even creatures such asYoung Harbingersfear this creature and flee whenever it is spotted. It is the only low level fiend that is regarded as a rankDdanger on its own.] As soon as the information on the bird was displayed I ran as fast as I could away from it. A harbinger was something I could not best at my current level. Infact I barely managed to hurt the one I had faught. But this. This was something else. Its presence was enough to make me tremble in fear and the information I had received was enough to make me fear for my life. If it decided to hunt me I would die no questions asked. I ran for what felt like an hour before I stopped and decided to continue my search for an alone Hellhound. As far away from the bird as possible of course. This time my hunt was a little more fruitful as I killed 5 Imps before finding to Hellhounds attacking a lone Imp. As the Hellhounds delivered the final blow to the Imp it managed to claw and one of the Hellhounds eyes and while the injury would have healed with time I was ready to take advantage of its temporary weakness. With a grin on my face I prepared to ambush the two Hellhounds Chapter 5: Advancments Channeling a dark bolt I observe the weakened Hellhound. With its vision damaged hitting it should be easier. Letting go of the Dark Bolt I started preparing the next one before it even hit its target. I finished charging the second bolt just before it hit the Hellhound however I waited until the first bolt had hit before letting go of the second one. As the first bolt hit into the Hellhound it staggered backwards and let put a growl as it looked around for the source if the attack. As it did I took aim and sent the second bolt at it. With its impaired vision it didn''t notice the bolt until it was to late and it took the second hit right in the face. The injured Hellhound had been taken care of. However the second Hellhound had found me after the second attack and came charching towards me as it growled at me. Releasing my third bolt I just managed to jump away when the Hellhound came charging by. However unfortunately the dark bolt only glanced of its side as my trajectory was slightly of due to the dodge I had performed. Jumping backwards I tried to create some space between me and the Hellhound but it was slightly faster than me so as it got close once more i had to dodge to the side. As the hound went past me I clawed at its side leaving a small scratch wound but nothing major. Compared to the one I fought some days ago this one was much sturdier. I barely managed to leave a scratch with my claws. We continued this dance for some time but my stamina was running out and I knew i had to end it soon. The next time i dodged instead of clawing at it i started casting dark bolt and as the Hellhound turned towards me to charge again I let go of the spell and sent it towards its legs. As the spell hit the Hellhounds leg I could hear a crack and a yelp of pain from the Hellhound. With its leg in poor condition all I had to do was take some distance and blast it until it died. [GainedExp from killingSmall Hellhound x2.Level has increased to 4. Gained 10Attribute Pointsreaching Level 3. Gained 10Atteibute PointsreachingLevel 4. Gained 3Attribute Pointsfrom killingSmall Hellhound x2.] [Skill Stealth has reachedLv3. SpellDark Bolt has reachedLv4. SkillDark Magichas reachedLv2. Spell Darknesshas been learnt. SkillEvasionhas reached Lv2. Title Ambusherhas reachedLv2] As I finished the fight and consumed the blood of the Hellhounds messages assaulted me. I had gained an absurd amount of attribute points from that fight. I would have to kill more than 20 Imps to get the amount of attribute points u got. Question is should I improve my Agility and Intelligence or should I get 20 in both Strength and Vitality before investing more points into Agility and Intelligence? After some serious thinking my stats ended up looking like this.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Race: Lesser Imp Level: 4/15 HP: 44/44 Mana: 47/47 Vitality: 20 Agility: 38 Strength: 20 Intelligence: 38 Unique Skills: Skills: Dark Knowledge: Lv2 Stealth: Lv4 (Up) Fire Resistance: Lv5 Dark Magic: Lv2 (Up) Dark Bolt: Lv4 (Up) Darkness: Lv1 (New) Minor Physical Resistance: Lv1 (New) Piercing Bite: Lv1 (New) Unique Titles: One Who Fell To Darkness Titles: Ambusher Lv2 (Up)
With my new and improved abilities I went out to hunt again. After killing the first Imp i realized that Imps no longer gave me anything so I decided to try to hunt for Hellhounds instead. After a few days I had killed 4 Hellhounds and reached Level 6 I also discovered that there are no new abilities at 40 in ability scored but I''m quite close to 50 in both Intelligence and Agility. I also managed to level up Evasion once. Darkness also turned out to be a useful spell as it blocked line of sight with my enemies and I could saftely run away or hide. I saw no sign of the bird as I hunted which I took as a good omen. But slowly I had noticed that the area around my started getting scarce when it came to prey. The number of Imps had been reduced and when hunting for Hellhounds it took me a long time to even find one. I did enounter the Harbinger many times though. As soon as I saw it I would run away and hope it hadn''t noticed me. It seemed like it was time to change areas if I wanted to continue hunting at the same pace. With a last look at the place where I had spent the majority of my life I left heading further from the hill than I ever had. I travelled for days only hunting when I had to or when I saw a small number of Hellhounds. While traveling I reached Level 7 and both my Intelligence and Agility passed 50 points awarding me with a single combined skill, Shadow Step which at the cost of some mana allowed me to travel from one shadow to the next. It was a useful skill but I didn''t have much use for it right now. It took to much mana for it to be used consistently during travel and I wanted to have a good amount of mana incase I was ambushed.
High Devil Lithraz had noticed something interesting. An Imp not only capable of planning and thinking rationally but also capable if magic. It had been eons since he last saw an Imp with this much potential. He couldnt let the other High Devils discover it before he could claim it. He licked lips in anticipation if he had a subordinate as capable as this one he would surely increase in ranking and maybe even decend to a Noble. With a snap of his fingers an empty piece of parchment made out of human skin appeared and with quick movements he wrote something on it before sealing it and placing it in servants hand before returning to the orb he used to observe the Imp. Truly his decision to observe the newborn Imps had been a good decision. With a smile on his lips he fell asleep dreaming about the status he would receive if he could control the Imp.
After more than a week of travel I arrived at an area that would suit my purpose. I could see thousands of larva not unlike the spot where I had been born. If I could become the controller of this area hunting not to mention surviving would be easy for the next weeks. My only hope was that no Bird or Harvinger existed around here.